Participants and Biographies (Western Prisons)

Western Prisons

Participants

Below is a list of experts and activists who discussed western criminal justice issues at the KUED Public Television studio in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, January 6th, 2004. Click on a name or scroll down to read their biographies.

Dr. Ed Latessa, Professor and Head of the Division of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati
Jackie Crawford, Director, Department of Corrections, Nevada
Dorothy Nash Holmes, Director, Prison Programs, Nevada
Tom Beauclair, Director, Idaho Department of Correction
Elliott Weiss, Idaho Department of Correction
Terry Kolkey, Defense Attorney, Oregon
Robert Lampert, Corrections Director, Wyoming
Dr. Theresa Martinez, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Utah
Marianne Johnstone, Director, Prisoner Information Network, Utah
Sheila Leslie, Specialty Courts Coordinator, 2nd Judicial District Court (Reno) and Nevada State Assembly, District 27 (Reno)
Tom Bolan, Director of Step Two (a halfway house for women and their children), Reno, NV

Biographies

Edward J. Latessa is a Professor and Head of the Division of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. Latessa has published over 75 works in the area of criminal justice, corrections, and juvenile justice. He is co-author of seven books, including Corrections in the Community, which is now in its third edition, and the 10th edition of Corrections in America. Professor Latessa has directed over 60 funded research projects, including: studies of day reporting centers, juvenile justice programs, drug courts, intensive supervision programs, halfway houses, and drug programs. He and his staff have also assessed over 350 correctional programs throughout the United States. Dr. Latessa is a consultant with the National Institute of Corrections, and he has provided assistance and workshops in over thirty-five states. Dr. Latessa served as President of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (1989-90). He has also received several awards, including: the Simon Dinitz Criminal Justice Research Award from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (2002), the Margaret Mead Award for dedicated service to the cause of social justice and humanitarian advancement by the International Community Corrections Association (2001), the Peter P. Lejins Award for Research from the American Correctional Association (1999); ACJS Fellow Award (1998); ACJS Founders Award (1992); and the Simon Dinitz Award by the Ohio Community Corrections Organization.

Jackie Crawford is the Director of the Nevada Department of Corrections. Director Crawford oversees an administrative office responsible for agency operations and planning. The Department staff of 2,500 supervises and provides services for 10,000 offenders in 21 locations.

Director Crawford was appointed to this position in May 2000. This is her third Directorship, having previously been Director of Corrections and Detention Services in the City of Las Vegas and the Parole Board Director in Arizona.

Director Crawford has thirty-two years of correctional and criminal justice experience that began in public administration in the early 1970s as a Correctional Officer in Nebraska. While in Nebraska she completed her degree in Public Administration and then became a Warden. She established and operated the City of Las Vegas Department of Corrections and Detention Center in the early 1980s, and in 1985 was appointed by Governor Bruce Babbitt to be Executive Director of the Arizona Parole Board. She was a Court Administrator from 1989 to 1994 with the Superior Court in Arizona. In 1996, she became the Warden of the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada.

Her service, awards and recognition include: American Correctional Association, Commissioner of Accreditation with an 8-year term from 1986 to 1994 and a current term that started in 2002. She was a charter member of the Correctional Standards Committee in the mid-1970s. She served as President of the North American Wardens & Superintendents Association from 1979 to 1982, and was recognized in 1993 by Volunteers of America for distinguished service to corrections.

Dorothy Nash Holmes is the Administrator of the Correctional Programs Division of the Nevada Department of Corrections. She heads a 57 person division focused on developing, coordinating, and funding rehabilitative programs for Nevada’s 10,500 inmates who reside in 20 different prison facilities.

She has been an attorney for 26 years and has spent a majority of her career in criminal justice. Ms. Holmes was a Deputy Attorney General prosecuting inmates and handling death penalty appeals for the State of Nevada. While prosecuting a prison murder case in 1999, Ms. Holmes saw some things in the prison system that needed some big changes. When offered the chance, she joined Nevada’s first female Director, Jackie Crawford, in 2000 to help her bring a new direction to corrections in Nevada.

Dorothy Nash Holmes served as Washoe County’s first elected female District Attorney from 1991-94. Before that, she was a federal prosecutor in both San Francisco and Reno, specializing in international narcotics traffickers as part of a special prosecution team, the President’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

As Washoe County DA, she was responsible for 150 employees and 40 attorneys and a $10 million budget. Her office sponsored Nevada’s first grant program to provide treatment to pregnant drug users instead of prosecuting them. She focused on deadbeat parents and increased Washoe County’s collection of child support from $6 million to $13 million in just two years. She was a founder of the Gang Alternatives Partnership, a Reno non-profit formed to help teens get out of gangs. Ms. Holmes was a national speaker for the National District Attorney’s Association, addressing the problem of drug-induced infanticide. She has also served on the boards of directors of over 30 non-profits or community organizations, including numerous drug prevention and treatment programs in Washoe County.

She is a native Nevadan, born in Reno. She graduated from Reno High School, the University of Nevada, and McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. Her husband is a home-builder, and she has two adult children and two grandchildren, ages 1 and 3.

Tom Beauclair has worked for the Idaho Department of Correction for 30 years. He began with the department in 1972 as a correctional officer. Through the years he has held numerous positions in the department in areas including treatment, security, and community corrections.

Mr. Beauclair obtained his bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice from Boise State University and a Masters in Counseling from the College of Idaho. He also has 16 years experience as an adjunct faculty member, teaching courses to undergraduate and graduate students in treatment and corrections.

Mr. Beauclair became the Director of the Idaho Department of Correction in September 2001. He oversees the department's eight state prisons, one private prison, four community work centers and eight district probation and parole offices. The Department of Correction manages approximately 15,000 offenders in the state of Idaho.

Elliott B. Weiss has been a Substance Abuse Counselor at the South Idaho Correctional Institution for the past eight years. He has been involved in the Residential Substance Abuse Program (RSAT) since its inception.

He was the Clinical Coordinator of an outpatient clinic in Boise prior to taking his present position with the Idaho Department of Corrections.

Before moving to Idaho in 1994, he resided in New York. There he was the HIV program Coordinator for Daytop Village. That position was located at a 230 bed Therapeutic Community that was part of New York's "alternative to prison" program. Prior to that, he was the Clinical Services Coordinator at a Minnesota Model adult residential treatment center.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Community and Human Services from the State University of New York and is a Certified Alcohol Drug Counselor.

Terry Kolkey is a criminal defense attorney in practice for 27 years. He graduated in 1970 from UCLA with a degree in English literature, and 1976 from Boston University Law School. Immediately out of law school he joined the Public Defenders Office in San Bernardino, CA, where he was a trial attorney for 8 years, defending individuals accused of crime who did not have the funds to hire their own counsel. Because of the office's heavy case load, he tried his first jury trial on his second day in the office and was assigned his first murder defense after only 11 months on the job. Highlights in the Public Defenders Office include a successful "not guilty because of insanity" verdict for a mother who killed her three children, and making a court appearance in which he announced ready for trial on 32 separate criminal cases in one day during a "power struggle" between the court and the defense bar.

From 1985 to 2002, Kolkey was a private practitioner in San Diego, CA, with his practice limited exclusively to criminal defense, both federal and state. During that period, he tried hundreds of cases from drunk driving to murder. A highlight was the 1996 defense of Ronald Porter who was allegedly a serial prostitute murderer. The prosecution brought in 5 top FBI experts from Virginia, and the case was the subject of a nationally televised program on the Medical Detectives.

At the present time, Kolkey lives in Jackson County, Oregon, and is licensed in both Oregon and California. In Northern California, he is defending three individuals accused of murder, two of whom are facing the death penalty.

Robert Lampert began his corrections career in the military. He served four years in the U.S. Marines as a corrections specialist and was honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant (E-6). His last assignment was as Deputy Chief Administrator, Regional Correctional Facility, Camp Pendleton, California.

Lampert retired from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in 1998 following twenty years of service, having risen through the ranks from correctional officer to senior warden. During his tenure, he worked in numerous maximum security prisons focused on hard labor and was instrumental in the development of innovative treatment-oriented facilities.

While working full time in corrections, Lampert attended Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in criminology and corrections, a Master of Arts in criminology and corrections and a Master of Business Administration, before going on to the University of Houston to get a Doctorate of Jurisprudence degree. He has been licensed to practice law in Texas since 1994.

After leaving Texas, Lampert worked for the Oregon Department of Corrections from July, 1998 until November, 2003. He served as Superintendent of Oregon's 3,000 bed Snake River Correctional Institution, the largest prison in the northwest. He also served as Assistant Superintendent of Oregon's only maximum security prison in Salem, Oregon.

Lampert began as Director for the Wyoming Department of Corrections on November 10, 2003. His goals as Director include: Develop long-term strategic plan with measurable objectives and achievable goals that are tied back to vision and mission of the agency; Defend funding for the construction of one or two new prisons this legislative session; Bring Wyoming inmates back to Wyoming beds; Enhance programming opportunities using a 'best practices' approach while maintaining or reducing overall costs per inmate per day.

Theresa Martinez is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Utah. She teaches courses in racial and ethnic relations, deviant behavior, and juvenile delinquency. Her research and most recent publications include work on the topics of race, class and gender, deviance, and popular culture. Professor Martinez has won several teaching awards including the Distinguished University Teaching Award, the College Superior Teaching Award, the Presidential Teaching Scholar Award, and the Top Professor Award from the Mortar Board Society.

In addition, Professor Martinez has won the YWCA Leadership Award for Education and the national Delta Gamma Foundation Faculty Award. Professor Martinez currently serves as a board member for the Salt Lake Legal Defenders and the Utah Hispanic American Festival.

Professor Martinez has provided diversity training for the Utah State Drivers' License Division, the Salt Lake County Drug Court, the annual Judicial Conference, the Girl Scouts of Utah, and the Salt Lake Legal Defenders. Currently, Professor Martinez is the Diversity Trainer for Juvenile Probation, the Salt Lake Police Department, and the Utah State Bar. Professor Martinez has appeared in Time magazine, the Miami Herald, and the New York Times, as well as on National Public Radio and "20/20," the ABC news magazine.

Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Marianne Johnstone is 68 years young. She has one son, three daughters, 7 grandsons, 3 granddaughters and 2 great grandsons.

She has been the Director of Prisoner Information Network (officially incorporated in 1997) since 1995. She works with volunteers to accomplish the many functions of PIN. She heads the "Release Day Hygiene Kit" distribution project. This project provides hygiene, clothes, and informational services each Tuesday at the Draper Prison site.

Working closely with other activists groups and the legislature, she works towards seeking solutions to many of the issues facing the incarcerated and their families. She also attends conferences and seminars around the country concerning prison issues. Recently she has attended "The Soul Knows No Bars" in Washington DC and "New Directions In Corrections" in Texas. She has been an active participant in the DOC community including the monthly FOCUS meetings since its beginning in February of 1998.

She has been a volunteer in many capacities, including the Westpointe Mobile Watch, Passages Program, Capitol Improvement Projects Board, and the Citizens Review Board.

She is devoted to Family History and is active in the LDS Church. She loves the theater and movies. She has been putting on Amateur Mystery Theater parties for a number of years, in part for fund raisers for PIN. She greatly enjoys Lava Hot Springs and Red Butte Gardens. She has traveled to Japan, Scotland, Israel and Egypt. She has lived across the country and has greatly enjoyed learning of the many different cultures that make up this country and the world.

She continues to be actively involved in the community and PIN, and looks forward to many more years serving her neighborhood and the communities of Utah.

Sheila Leslie is the Specialty Courts Coordinator for the 2nd Judicial District Court in Reno, Nevada and is also serving her third term as a Nevada Assemblywoman. Sheila has an extensive background in non-profit work, previously serving as the Executive Director of the Children's Cabinet, Tahoe Human Services, and the Food Bank of Northern Nevada. She has a Masters Degree in Spanish Literature and is the author of many articles and studies on human services issues such as systems integration, teen pregnancy, mental health, and youth gangs.

In her current employment Sheila coordinates the work of Washoe County's three drug courts (Adult, Family, and Juvenile), Re-Entry Court, and the state's first multi-jurisdictional Mental Health Court. These Specialty Courts serve more than 500 defendants each year through supervised substance abuse and mental health treatment programs utilizing a collaborative team approach.

In the Nevada Legislature, Sheila has served as the Assembly's Assistant Majority Whip since 2001, and is a member of the Ways and Means, Health and Human Services, and Commerce and Labor Committees. Sheila has earned numerous awards for her legislative work including:

Honoring Our Heroes Award, Southern NV Area Health Education Center, 2003
2002 Legislator of the Year, NV State Psychological Association
Legislative Advocate Award, NV Disability Advocacy & Law Center, 2002
Politician of the Year, Truckee Meadows Human Services Association, 1999
Rising Star Award, Outstanding First Term Legislator, NV Women's Lobby, 1999
Legislator of the Year, NV Association of Social Workers, 1999

She was appointed by Governor Kenny Guinn as a member of the Study Committee on Corrections in 2002, and served on the Corrections Budget Sub-Committee during the 2003 session. She has also been appointed to the national Re-Entry Policy Council, serving on the Health and Housing Services Subcommittee.

Tom Bolan is the Chief Executive Officer for Step 2 in Reno NV, a comprehensive, coordinated program related to treatment and recovery of chemically dependant women and their families, resulting in sustainable self-sufficiency. Step 2 provides state-of-the-art care for pregnant and parenting women and their children within the context of seamless service delivery that includes residential treatment, outpatient, and intensive outpatient services coupled with long term transitional housing. Step 2 operates the Lighthouse of the Sierra - a community partnership linking integrated housing, treatment and recovery services with employment, family development, and mental health counseling. Lighthouse of the Sierra is a unique campus and treatment community consisting of 26 one to three bedroom cottages, on-site child care, and a treatment/ program center. Step 2 works closely with the Washoe County Family Drug Court and Child Protective Services to afford parenting mothers an alternative to incarceration with the goal of family reunification and wellness.

Mr. Bolan's 25 year career has focused on developing and directing innovative family wellness and self-sufficiency programs. In the late 70's he worked with emotionally disturbed adolescents, directing a group home and serving as a case manager in a specialized foster care program. He served in the Peace Corps (Philippines) in the early eighties and continued as a in-country Training Director. From 1989-95 he was the founding Executive Director of the Tri-City Homeless Coalition in Fremont, California, directing the development of Sunrise Village, a transitional shelter program assisting individuals and families to address causes of their homeless and a return to stable housing. In 1996-97 he was the Director of the East Meets West Foundation, implementing humanitarian and community development programs in Vietnam. In the late 90's he helped develop a coordinated employment and training strategy for homeless people in the San Francisco Bay Area. From 1999-02 Mr. Bolan was the Director of a large Community Action Agency in rural Montana where he initiated Early Head Start, Teen Mentoring, Transitional Housing, and Family Counseling programs. Mr. Bolan has been appointed to numerous state and community committees and boards focusing on economic opportunity and anti-poverty issues.